This invention relates to a chair which is normally in a fixed position for cooperating with a panoramic dental x-ray machine to establish a patient in proper orientation for dental radiography and which is releasable and mobile to enable a patient on an ordinary wheel chair to be similarly established.
Panoramic dental x-ray apparatus is used for radiographing the entire oral region of a patient on a single film in contrast with the traditional method of taking individual radiographs of the teeth and various oral regions for a complete oral diagnostic survey. Most healthy patients simply sit down in the chair that is associated with the x-ray apparatus and their head is steadied with a headrest after which the panoramic radiograph is taken and the patient gets up and leaves. However, panoramic x-ray apparatus is frequently used in convalescent homes where patients are brought into the dental room in an ordinary wheel chair and in hospitals where accident victims should be allowed to remain in a wheel chair. According to prior practice, panoramic x-ray apparatus had a permanently fixed chair to which a patient had to be transferred from a wheel chair. In such cases a lot of time was taken by the technician in merely getting the patient properly positioned and the patient often experienced great discomfort. The present invention is devoted to mitigating these and other problems.